Trade chiefs aim to boost flagging world talks

Trade chiefs aim to boost flagging world talks

Patrick Lannin, Reuters, Brussels

Top trade ministers meet in Egypt this weekend to give a push to global talks that have become bogged down on tough issues such as farm reform and access to life-saving medicines for poor countries.

The talks, bringing together about 25 ministers, are the first since a series of deadlines for the Doha Round of World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations were missed.

They are a key part of the runup to a ministerial meeting of the 145-member WTO in Mexico in September, whose success could decide whether the round finishes on time at the end of 2004.

"It (the Egyptian meeting) could lead to a better understanding of positions and this could bring some advance," said V.P. Haran, the deputy Indian ambassador to the World Trade Organization, ahead of the June 21-22 meeting in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

"But if you are expecting ministers to come out with radical solutions, that is unlikely to happen," he added.

Key topics that have stalled the talks are:

-- progress in how to open up the $500 billion world market in agricultural produce;

-- how to waive patent rules to let poor countries with no drugs industry import cheap, usually generic, drugs for diseases like AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria;

-- how to ease tariffs on industrial goods;

-- what special terms developing nations should get in meeting WTO rules.

A firm European Union commitment to farm reform is crucial as, according to Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimates, it hands out some $100 billion in subsidies each year. This compares with around $40 billion in the United States and Japan.

EU ministers were meeting in Luxembourg on Thursday to try to forge a deal that could strengthen the hand of European Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy and send an important signal for the whole Doha round.

"I don't know how much...(negotiating) credit I will get, but...I have lots of ideas how I can spend it," Lamy told Washington-based reporters in a video conference on Tuesday.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, an outspoken critic of EU farm policy, said:

"It is clear that progress in agriculture will set the pace for progress in other areas."

But the United States could face criticism in Egypt for blocking a deal on access to medicines, accepted by all other states, because its powerful pharmaceutical industry fears it could give a free hand to developing world producers of generic medicines to steal markets.

The Doha Round is aimed at bringing down trade barriers and expanding global commerce as well as giving poor, developing nations a bigger slice of the cake.

With the world economy stumbling along with low rates of growth, liberalizing trade is seen as a way to boost activity.

"A successful conclusion of the round is thus key to reviving the world economy," said WTO head Supachai Panitchpakdi in a recent speech.